As NATO planes patrol the skies over Libya in an effort to protect civilian areas and (unofficially) tip the scales in the favour of those opposed to Muammar Gadaffi’s regime, two aspiring nuclear powers of George W Bush’s Axis of Evil will be watching events intently. Until only very recently, Gadaffi was lauded by many western governments as a shining example of how a previously pariah state could come in from the cold by giving up its nuclear programme. As the leaders of Iran and North Korea watch the bombs fall on Libya, they are unlikely to be swayed by further carrots or sticks from the West if this is the fate that befalls a state which abandons its nuclear ambitions.